Current Students and Staff

// University News

photo of coffee beans

16 Apr 2018

Be more sustainable for UK Coffee Week!

Love a morning brew? Want to help save the planet?

UK Coffee Week is upon us – hoorah! - and to mark the occasion the Sustainability team has highlighted four things you can do on campus to fulfil your caffeine needs and care for the environment.

The Loughborough Cup

You may have noticed the University’s own branded reuse mug – the Loughborough Cup - floating around. These were created in a bid to tackle the high number of disposable coffee cups thrown away each year on campus – which tally to more than one million!

The Cup, which is available to buy in most campus retail outlets, comes in a range of colours and costs just £7 - this includes three free hot drinks, valid for the University’s retail outlets but not Loughborough Students’ Union.

As well as benefitting from a few freebies, if you use the Cup - or your own reusable cup - in the University’s retail outlets and at Starbucks in the Students’ Union you get a 10% discount on your coffee.

Many high street coffee companies also offer discounts for reusable cups so the purchase is definitely worthwhile.

Drink it in

Another way to avoid the plastic and be kind to the environment is to take some time out and enjoy your coffee in a crockery cup in one of the University’s retail outlets.

Recycling bins

If you do use a disposable coffee cup, these can now be recycled in the special cup bins which are located in the retail outlets and other shared areas on campus.

Please ensure that before you recycle these, you empty any dregs into the liquid reservoir point first and dispose of the plastic lids in the plastic recycling bins.

Reusing coffee grounds

As you may know, the University gets through a lot of coffee and this leaves a large amount of the waste product.

In a bid to tackle the amount of food waste at the University, the Sustainability team have coffee ground bins located in the Edward Herbert Building and Martin Hall on campus.  

Simply bring in a container and take the coffee grounds home for free.

There are many online tutorials that re-purpose coffee grounds; they suggest they can be used to make compost, clean grease on kitchen counters and also as a gentle exfoliator for your face and body. You can find out more uses for them here.

To find out more about the work of the Sustainability team and how you can help the environment, visit the Sustainability webpages.